So what's the deal, is everybody in Europe unaware of colonialism? I'm not really grasping the confusion as to why racist insults are Not Good. I didn't grow up in America, but I am aware that the persecution of minorities has occurred throughout history and that the consequences of that can be felt to this day. The Eurozone does not have clean hands when it comes to dealing with Africa either, you guys.
again,it's not "euorpe doesn't have racism" or "europe doesn't understand colonialism/slavery"..it's simply that,being that world (mainly) part of US history,it's there that it has the biggest weight...here in italy probably the direct translation would be "negro", that again,it's not the political correct term,and will definitely raise some eyebrow if used in public, but it will never bring to examples like this
If a friend used that slang term in a private chat, I'd disown them.
because the biggest interaction we had with africa was during world war 2 and they kicked our asses and made us go back to Italy really fast.
nowadays it's mainly immigrants, but they are still a way smaller minority than in the US,
basically,it's still considered a racist at worst and not politically correct term at best here too...but it wil never generate the "sounds all alarms, burn him/her at the stake" reaction that it receives in the US..so it is possible for an european,depending of course of where in europe he/she is,since europe it's a pretty big and diverse place, to use the world (or the regional equivalent) lightly, especially when you consider the fact that he/she is talking in another language, and that adds even more distance between the term and what it actually historically meant of people of color
